An interesting article about the Russian Jewels. From joiabr.com.br. I hope you understand, I translated the text, but I am not sure if everything is correct...

Quote:

The Romanov&#39;s imperial treasure
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* * The Russian imperial jewels have more than a thousand years of history. Many of the first pieces of the Russian jewelry are similar in style to the jewels used in the courts of the Byzantine Empire. For several centuries, the style changed just a little. It was only with emperor Peter I, well known as "The Big", that Russia began with the occident changes of culture and experience in the most varied fields. Because of this the style of the Russian jewelry modified forever. The great influence of the foreign jewelers&#39; styles, combined to the Russian jewelers&#39; creativity, ended up establishing a great and important jewelry industry in Russia. Among the most famous jewelers of this new Russian industry of jewels it is the Fabergé house.*
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* * Emperor Peter I created the first version that today it is known as the " state fund of the diamond to the Russian federation". The objective of the creation of this founds permanent was shelter collections of jewels that would start to belong not to Romanov family, but to Russian State. Peter I declared, when he installed this found, that the pieces of this one were inviolable, they could not be altered, sold or given and he also decreed that the emperor or subsequent empress should leave for the fund a certain amount of acquired or made pieces during his reign, for larger glory to the Russian empire.*
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* * In 1914, with the menace of a possible German invasion owed to 1st World War, all the collection of jewels of the Russian imperial family was packed carefully and correspondent to Saint Petersburg to Moscow, where it was buried in existent crypts under the Kremlin Palace.*
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* * But the political conflicts in Russia, including the revolution of 1917 and the consequent civil war made the destiny of the imperial jewels a mystery up to 1926, when they were found in Kremlin, classified and photographed. An enormous selection of pieces, approximately 70% of the total of the original collections, it was sold to an American consortium and, later, these jewels went in auction in Christie&#39;s in 1927. The sold jewels were dispersed for whole the parts of the world and many have unknown whereabouts even today.*&nbsp;
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* * The remaining jewels, of high historical and artistic value, include the crown and piece-symbol of the coronation of the Romanov, and a spectacular collection of pieces of the centuries XVIII and XIX. These jewels were exposed, for the first time, just the high foreign dignitaries and to the highest commandants and Russian rulers in 1967, in the commemorations of the 50 years of the communist revolution. From the fall of the Russian communism, the jewels are exposed in the crypts of the museum of Kremlin, but now they are accessible to all the ones that visit the palace.

The Orange Tree Egg. The gold tree stands in a white quartz tub applied with gold trellis and green laurel swags suspended from rubies filled with hammered gold soil. The tub stands on a nephrite base with four nephrite posts at the corners connected by swags of green enamel leaves and pearl. The tree is decorated with finely engraved nephrite leaves, citrine, amethyst, ruby and champagne diamond &#39;berries&#39; and white enamel flowers with diamond-set pistils. It conceals a gold winding mechanism. When triggered by a key, a portion of the foliage at the top of the tree rises and a feathered nightingale emerges singing while moving its head, wings, and beak. When the melody ends, the bird disappears automatically - signed Fabergé, date 1911, height: 11 3/4 inches (29.8 cm)
Provenance: Presented by Tsar Nicholas II to the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna on Easter 1911

The "Alexander III Commemorative Egg" of 1910. The rock crystal egg engraved with two tied laurel leaf sprays, the upper half applied with platinum trelliswork and a tasseled fringe, two consoles shaped as crowned double-headed eagles set with rose-cut diamonds, with a diamond as finial concealing the date 1910 in a rose-cut diamond surround. Standing on a lobed and stepped quatrefoil rock crystal base and four winged platinum therms, each ending in an acanthus scroll. Containing a gold model of a statue of Tsar Alexander III after P. Troubetzkoi standing on a nephrite base embellished with two rose-cut diamond bands - engraved signature Fabergé, height 6 11/8 inches (15.5. cm)
Provenance: Presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Easter 1910

The "Moscow Kremlin Egg" of 1904. An enameled gold composition centered on the egg-shaped (removable) dome of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Moscow Kremlin, in white opalescent enamel, the interior of the church with its carpets, tiny enameled icons and High Altar made visible through four triple windows, surmounted by a gold cupola; flanked by two square and two circular stylized turrets, the former based on the Spassky Tower, bearing the coat-of-arms of the Russian Empire and Moscow and inset with chiming clocks. Standing on a crenelated gold base and octagonal onyx plinth - signed Fabergé, dated 1904, height 14 1/4 inches (36.1 cm). A clockwork music box (with original key) plays Izhe Khveruviny (Cherubim hymn), a favorite hymn of Tsar Nicholas.
Provenance: Presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his wife Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, Easter 1906

The Fifteenth Anniversary Egg. The opalescent and opaque white enamel egg is encased within a grid-shaped cage work of gold and green enamel garlands which frame eighteen scenes painted by court miniaturist Vassily Zuiev. Some of the events of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra&#39;s reign over the past fifteen years are recorded in these historical vignettes. Individual portraits of the czarina, her husband and their five children each set within oval-shaped apertures bordered by diamonds. The dates of Nicholas and Alexandra&#39;s wedding, 1894, and the fifteenth anniversary of the Coronation, 1911, are set beneath the portraits of the Tsarina and the Tsar respectively. Beneath a table diamond at the top of the egg is the crowned monogram of Tsarina Alexandra; the base is set with a rose-cut diamond - signed Fabergé, height 5 1/8 inches (13 cm)
Provenance: Presented by Tsar Nicholas II to Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna on Easter 1911. It stood on the middle shelf of a corner cabinet in the Tsarina&#39;s study at the Alexander Palace

Originally posted by reynard@Nov 9th, 2003 - 4:13 pm Some folks were asking to see Russian jewels, so post any pics you have. Here is a tiara made by Faberge and is now owned by the Duke of Westminster, I think

Fo those interested and who live in close proximity. The Florida International Museum will feature an exhibit depicting more than 800 years of Russian history, "Russian Odyssey: Riches of the State Russian Museum" in St. Petersburg, Florida.The exhibit will run through April 4, 2004.

The 10,000-square-foot exhibit hall will contain more than 300 objects that will include artwork ,paintings, porcelain, furniture and jewelry.

For more info call: (727)525-030

__________________Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the attempt. ---Phaedrus